Due to the continuous extension
of today's global market and
competition domains, the
protection of your business name
has become more important than
ever before. Advances in
communication media and internet
has widely spread information
amongst the public all around
the world. This has made it
easier for a competitor to make
use of your valuable reputation.
Thus, if you intend to have a
brand and proceed with
advertising, it is much safer to
protect this brand and make it a
registered trademark. Otherwise,
third party's imitation of your
trademark would be quite
possible making use of the
effort and money you have
exerted in building up your
reputation. Imitation might also
take place innocently.
Whether innocent or willful,
infringement of your trademark
is hard to overcome if it is not
duly registered. Defending
non-registered trademarks
usually entails long procedure
of Court cases, which in most
cases take a long time to be
settled and significant amount
of money, taking into account
that a favorable Court decision
is not guaranteed in all cases.
This means that your registered
trademark may well be your most
valuable asset.
The following are the major
benefits of registering a
trademark:
1- Protects the business and
owner from significant financial
loss as a result of possible
infringement.
2- Gives the registrant
exclusive legal ownership over
the mark, and exclusive right to
use the mark nationwide.
3- It refrains others from
claiming that your trademark is
an infringement upon theirs.
4- It is an official proof of
precedence of the trademark,
which means that any party that
intends to have a confusingly
similar mark can not claim
ignorance of existence of
previously registered mark.
5- The registered trademark will
appear on any search report
requested by third party, who
intends to use and register a
similar trademark. Therefore,
such appearance may urge this
party not to apply for this
similar trademark registration.
6- It grants the owner the right
to recover damages and
attorney's fees from a possible
infringer.
7- In the countries that examine
trademark applications, the
Trademark Office will refuse any
application for the registration
of a trademark that is
confusingly similar to yours.
8- A registered trademark is a
prerequisite for franchising a
business.
9- A registered trademark can be
marked with the sign ® alerting
others from
using or claiming rights in your
trademark
